Face-painting opera singer debuts with Verismo Opera's 'Rigoletto'

It's been a fairy tale life for opera singer Hannah Stephens. Make that faerie tale.

Though the 27-year-old British export flourishes on stage -- she portrays Gilda in Verdi's "Rigoletto" by Verismo Opera starting Aug. 3 at the Bay Terrace Theatre in Vallejo -- the U.S. doesn't exactly dump gold coins on its opera performers.

So, on the side, the American Canyon resident is Miss Aria, a blue-eyed faerie employed by Happily Ever After children's party entertainment company.

Suffice to say, Enrico Carusso or Maria Callas may have been amazing, but neither ever perfected a

balloon piggy.

"Facepainting. Balloon animals. Hula lessons. Puppet shows. All sorts of things," Stephens said. "Sometimes I just walk around and talk to the children."

There's nothing, she said, like "that look in the children's faces, of wonder and joy. I remember very well feeling the same way as a kid. I loved fantasy, and I was such a book worm. I honestly thought that I didn't belong in this world, and that I should fall through a magic mirror and be a sword fighting magician at

some point."

Yes, it's "quite a bit different" than opera, said Stephens, "though when I do sing, it's in my

opera voice."

It wasn't until Stephens' performance of Despina, at 18, "that I decided that I would rather be here, in this world, and sing opera."

Stephens, a lyric coloratura soprano, makes her Verismo Opera debut for director Fred Withrop and said she's grown into the Gilda role, having done a quartet segment as Gilda in 2006 at the University

of Mexico.

"Before I really began studying, I didn't actually like Gilda," said Stephens. "I did like the music. But she's so stupid. I wouldn't believe she would get herself killed on his dime for some complete loser. After studying it more, I realized she was just completely messed up in the head and it's all Rigoletto's fault. He wouldn't even tell her her last name or let her leave the house. I actually like her now. It's a fun character to play."

And Gilda has Stephens' attention, unlike the recent birth of the royal baby.

"I don't keep up, even though I was born in England," said Stephens, who moved to the states at 6.

No, her attention is focused on singing and her husband, Cody Stacey, whom Stephens met because of an overbooked flight in London. She was on the way back from singing in Germany and he was a winemaker with a group of colleagues from Fresno.

Stephens kept in touch and, while making the semi-finals audition for the Los Angeles Opera, gave a few a call. Stacey responded, driving seven hours to see her.

"I can't explain how supportive he has been," she said, adding that her husband is "definitely" not

a singer.

Stephens, however, can't remember not singing in a household that included a mother playing harp and a father playing violin and trumpet.

"I was always singing. If not singing, than humming," Stepehns said. "A rule in the house was that you were not allowed to tell someone to stop singing."

A shy child, Stephens would close herself in the closet to sing for friends. At 8, she took to piano, playing until 13 when she switched to voice lessons.

"I knew I wanted to be an opera singer at 15," she said. "And that never changed."